The data from a recent Info-Tech Research Group survey of the market shows that email archiving is moving to the cloud. Many factors contributed to this move, among them the requirement to save more data, the ability to save things other than email with cloud archiving and the cost that can be saved by placing a large archive in the cloud. The state of the market demonstrates evolution, development and maturity.

One of the consequences of email's status as a long-serving office tool is that email archives have had a long time to fill with messages. The Info-Tech survey found that companies now deal with quantities of mail that cannot be handled easily or affordably on their own servers. This can be solved, in small part, through the deletion of messages. However, deletion is increasingly regulated by the need to keep documents in case of litigation. These conflicting forces have driven companies in search of a solution that will store more data. That means the cloud is the vector of choice.

"Email archiving has been around long enough that many organizations are working with very large archives, but are loath to implement rules for purging older emails," said Info-Tech lead research analyst Tim Hickernell. "This is opening opportunities for cheaper, cloud-based archives."

One other factor contributing to the rise of cloud archiving is the storage of text data other than email. The Info-Builders study found that companies are increasingly using methods other than traditional email to collaborate. Employees communicating through social networks and instant messages are still speaking on the record, and their transcripts could be needed in the course of an ediscovery investigation. That means companies need cloud storage space, as the variety and amount of data they hope to save increase.

Tech predictions going forward indicate that both email and social network communication are on the rise, ensuring future need for strong and scalable archiving solutions. A recent Radicati Group survey, while predicting the rise of social media, with worldwide accounts at popular networks reaching 4.3 billion in 2016, it also stated that email will continue to grow. The same study found that the current estimated 3.3 billion individual email accounts in the world today will grow by 1 billion by the end of 2016. All of those accounts will fill the next generation of archiving solutions. Thanks to the cloud's ease of upgrades and scalability, companies will not need to interrupt service to handle the new data.